Occupy Duke now

Last Wednesday, I marched with nearly 15,000 other people in the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City. I have also spent some time at the live-in itself at Zuccotti Park. I am writing to encourage Duke students to support the national movement by peacefully occupying Duke. Duke itself may not be a primary culprit in the scandal of corporate greed overwhelming our nation (though this is debatable). By most accounts, Duke has encouraged research and debate, increased financial aid and made efforts to keep student loan debt manageable.

Nevertheless, Duke students can do enormous good by making their voices heard through protest on campus. Our protest has grown exponentially as people across the nation have taken a good, hard look at themselves and realized the need for everyone—everyone—to take action. Our protest has thrived with the help of people—perhaps like many Duke students—who “don’t really do that.” If you are one of those people, please consider the thought. A Duke protest would bring this urgency to one more community in America. Some in the media have ridiculed our protest as disorganized. Our message, however, is simple: End the preferential treatment of banks “too big to fail” and other multinational corporations at the expense of American jobs, health care and wages.

Here are some initiatives I believe any Duke student could support:

1. A financial transaction tax to prevent the absurd and dangerous extremes of electronic trading.

2. The “Buffett” plan for increasing tax rates on Americans making more than $1 million a year.

3. Outlawing the shameless accounting practices that allow companies to evade taxes—General Electric, for instance, reported $14.2 billion in profit in 2010 and paid no federal taxes.

You are part of the 99 percent.